Word Nerd: Favorite Words.

The winners of the essay contest will be announced by Wednesday. The winners have officially been selected and I promise to do the big announcement on Wednesday. Until then, I would like to talk about favorite words. It’s sort of related.

Have you ever been asked what your favorite word is? Have you ever thought about how you’d answer such a question? In my life, this comes up at least a few times a year. I’m not sure if that’s true for you. You might be scratching your head right now. Maybe the concept of choosing (and remembering) a favorite word is something only word nerds do. Why, just today at the newspaper office I overheard a conversation about favorite words. Word nerds hang out in places like newspaper offices and bars.

I have been known to resist the idea of a favorite word. As a writer, after all, one really can’t play favorites. Or maybe a writer can, but a writer’s favorite word is going to be any word that could be classified as the right one at the right time, and what’s “right” changes with the sentence. Furthermore, since the most important thing a writer can do is read (yes, a writer should read more than she writes), she’s bound to come across new words as well as old words used in terrific ways, which means her favorite word(s) really ought to always be changing. If she’s absorbing things, you know?

Maybe I’m overthinking it. I usually am. Therefore, in the spirit of being wrong, here are three of my favorite words:

meadow
dimly [aware]
poky

“Meadow” is obvious, isn’t it? To begin with, the word starts with “M,” which is a very smart letter to start a word with, e.g., “Mary.” More importantly, a “meadow” is a word for possibly a perfect thing; a pure, sun-dappled thing. A meadow is a place where fawns leap and prance in the bluebells; a place where cows named Buttercup eat buttercups and faeries zip around and charm little girls into naps where they go on adventures and meet magical creatures who let them bury their faces in their fur. Yes, I love a meadow. I knew meadows in Iowa because for every cornfield and timber in Iowa, there exists a meadow — or two. My sisters and I played in forests and oak groves and meadows. So, yes: “Meadow” is a good word.

“Dimly” is great on its own for awhile, but for the full punch, you’ve gotta pair it with “aware.” To pair “dimly” with “aware” is to pair wine and cheese or chocolate and peanut butter. Look:

She wondered, “Is he trying to insult me?”She was dimly aware she was being insulted.

or

Eventually, he thought, he would need to go to the dentist about the crown. Until then, he continued to eat ice.He crunched his ice, dimly aware that his dental work was in danger.

Is not the second sentence in each of the above examples better than the first?? (I realize I don’t have an editor to confirm this; welcome to blogging.) But I believe there’s an intelligence conferred when someone — anyone — is “dimly aware” of something, which is interesting since “dim” usually means the opposite of intelligent. I’ve heard that the mark of intelligence is being able to hold two opposing ideas in one’s mind at the same time, and maybe that’s what I like about “dimly aware.” It’s like, you’re thinking one thing but you’re also sort of vaguely thinking of this other thing, and that makes you a person who thinks. Maybe I like dimly because it rhymes with “grimly” and the tone that usually comes with being “dimly aware” of something is grim or resigned.

And then there’s “poky.” Oh, my lil’ poke!

There are two spellings of this word and they’re both good. Let’s consult the oracle, aka, the dictionary:

pok·ey

ˈpōkē

noun

1. NORTH AMERICAN

informal

noun: pokey

prison.

“25 years in the pokey”

pok·y

ˈpōkē

adjective

adjective: pokey

1.

NORTH AMERICAN

annoyingly slow or dull.

“his poky old horse”

2.

(of a room or building) uncomfortably small and cramped.

“five of us shared the poky little room”

I know, right?? It’s so good. A slow horse that you love. A way to describe prison that isn’t a horrifying nightmare. A hotel room that is so bad but you can make it sort of funny instead of a vacation-ruiner. And I also think of my favorite Little Golden Book, The Poky Little Puppy, which is so sweet and good, I think angels wrote it for my grandma to read to me over and over until I knew all the words.

Speaking of words: What’s your favorite? You can choose…three. And you’re entitled to change your mind.

Detritus – what a pretty word for garbage
Conflagration – a very sexy word for a big fire…
Tenderness – also the title of my favorite poem (Stephen Dunn) – look it up. I love the line from that poem to describe Tenderness, “It’s a word I see now you must be older to use, you must have experienced the absence of it often enough to know what silk and deep balm it is when at last it comes.” Amen! Preach!

I like window, umbrella and crystal.
I very much dislike the word fresh. It sounds too much like flesh and seems to be applied indiscriminately to room deodorizes, nail polish, toothpaste and anything else that would otherwise be trite and tiresome.

Monkey – my endearing term for my daughter, as she climbed over and on everything around her;
Warm – summer heat enveloping, seeping in through my skin
Galaxy- Brilliant beautiful objects above Earth. Knowing there is something bigger than us, older than us, humbling in its expanse.

We might also discuss the words we find repugnant (which is a very good word!). Lately for me they’ve been “eatery” and “functionality”. I find them to be beyond annoying. I have a very good friend, a philosopher mathematician, who claims the most lovely words all have the letter “u” in them.

Discombobulated- makes me giggle.
Peruse- apparently a favorite word of many people I know, because they say it a lot, but they don’t know what it means. Drives me bonkers (bonkers- I love that word!). I say peruse to mean reading thoroughly or carefully (it’s the standard definition- it means read but typically means reading with care), but they think it only means reading lightly or quickly glossing over.

I have a few favorite words, and I don’t hang out in offices, or bars. My, just about favorite,, is ‘serendipity’, for the way it sounds and for what it means; ‘bittersweet’, for the same reasons; ‘midway’ as at a carnival; and ‘whipporwill.’ I enjoyed hearing your favs.

*Schenectady…because it’s just fun to say!!
*Grandma…because hearing one of those little folks call me that does wonderful things to my heart!!!
*Meatloaf…because that has to be one of the most comforting foods on the face of the earth!

Penultimate has long been my favourite word. I have to actively seek out opportunities to use it and apparently I am successful as a former co-worker recently found me on LinkedIn to say that he thinks of me often as he, too, now seeks out opportunities to use it. Apparently favourite words can be contagious. As they should be.

Mercy
my favorite word changes as the wind blows.
I heard this word in a song the other day and realized that in has become and uncommon word, with the exception of religious use. I think it speaks to our changes in society where we are no longer at fault and to ask for mercy is to admit fault.